#38 - Power Tactics: The Communications Phalanx
Introducing a framework for how I think about effective communications from leadership teams of organizations (businesses, governments, movements, etc.)
Davos 2017
It’s November of 2016, and my team has started doing a massive project to prepare for the global conference Davos.
My responsibility during this phase was to, among other things:
Come up with a communications strategy for things like philanthropy, climate positions, corporate responsibility, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion)
Understand histories and perspectives of other global leaders attending (…this took forever)
Develop a framework of talking points that all key attendees follow to influence how the community thinks
I can’t take credit for achieving all of the above — there was a team of 5-10 people working on all of this, but I had the chance to jump across each of the above three dimensions, and point 3 was really where the “rubber hit the road” so to speak.
In this situation, I learned the importance of re-communication and have consistently said the following to the teams I’ve worked with:
Effective communications isn’t saying something once and hoping it sticks. It’s saying it over and over again, across channels and interaction points until your target population can say the points back to you with extremely high accuracy.
Talking points help with making sure your communications are effective.
Why Talking Points Matter:
Preparation enables success, and if you have many people helping to push an agenda or initiative, they all need to be speaking from the same fundamental ideas
This doesn’t mean everyone necessarily saying the exact same things verbatim as if reading from a piece of paper — it means people being consistent and also putting their own flair on the points
Without clear talking point guidance, leaders and representatives will sway from core messages, and can cause confusion or outright undermine whatever communication points exist
Enter “The Communications Phalanx
I wrote a way-too-long post about the power of a Classics major in #33, so it should be zero surprise that I’m bringing in a term from ancient history: the phalanx. The phalanx is an ancient Greek tactical formation that, “consists of a block of heavily armed infantry standing shoulder to shoulder in files several ranks deep.” (Brittanica definition).
This tactic was utterly game-changing in helping to win countless battles, and I think it’s a wonderful analogy (…violence notwithstanding of course) for how a group of individuals on the same team should think about how they communicate a set of messages to an audience. This is a term I’ve used in my brain for a long time (and at work).
Look at the above image. Each person occupies a different part of the plane — no one person makes the exact same steps and yet they are coordinated. They move in unison, but they step on different parts of the land in front of them. This is how a highly effective leadership team or organization creates change in their chosen area of focus.
Thus, a definition: the communications phalanx is a tactical device that organizations can utilize to drive impactful, coordinated communication and re-communication.
I built out this somewhat-crappy graphic to explain how to think about a comms phalanx.
(yeeeeesh, so many arrows. I’ll explain it now).
Understanding the pyramid graphic above:
Skip past this section if you feel like you get the main idea.
Definitions
Pyramid = the total addressable market space for your message
Original Communicators (OCs) = The people and places where a message is being delivered from first
Initial Target Population (ITPs) = The first population of people who are hearing a message
Secondary Populations (SPs) = The people who hear a message second-hand or somewhat unintentionally
Dynamics
1. Messages start from the OCs and the flow down to the ITPs and then ITPs communicate what they understand / surmise about the original message
2. Typically from ITPs to SPs is when there is signal loss. It’s when the original message gets interpreted and potentially warped —> leads to confusion
3. Feedback then flows back up through the pyramid, reaching the original communicators, who then have the opportunity to refine and clarify their message before then communicating once again through the pyramid
If the original communicators do not get feedback on how the message is landing, they will not increase their effectiveness.
The best way to make this happen is to have a multi-point strategy whereby they:
1. Get direct feedback from the second layer (ITPs) on what is and is not landing
2. Skip layers and go directly to the secondary population to get their thoughts (Example: CEO of coca-cola going to the plant floor and asking employees what they want to see changed instead of going to their SVPs/VPs and asking)
3. Have an industrialized way to capture feedback like regular surveys, social listening, etc.
Example Applications
Leadership teams driving change management
Agreeing on a set of talking points, ensuring all leaders know the 3-5 power points, and make sure to talk about the points in their respective org meetings, team meetings, and even 1-1s, and then making sure the team takes time to report back on what they’re hearing from people receiving their messages
Category creation
Defining a set of crisp talking points that you will use to create a new market space. Let’s go through an example… how about… Cookie Grading (Hey, Exonomist is STILL written in raw form, which means my analogies are going to be, at times, absurd). Example points:
We love cookies, and we love the artistry of a tasty, symmetrical cookie
You love posting your cookie pictures to social, and your friends love seeing them
Don’t you want a device that helps you ensure your cookies are perfectly round and plump?
We have a new app, 360 Cookie, that gives you augmented reality guides to help you craft the perfectly instagrammable cookie
Check out 360cookie.com (please don’t go to this site, I don’t know what’s there — I hope it’s not inappropriate or computer-ruining)
Political party driving an agenda item
Political parties have used this approach for centuries, and you can see it today by simply turning on the news after any major issue arises and you see multiple politicians using the same term but speaking to the topic with their own localized flair, in a way that ideally lines up with their constituency
And perhaps in no place is the feedback loop more important — politicians use feedback from media and constituents to understand how a message is landing, and they pile on when something is working
Which leads me to a risk of this tactic… Like all powerful things, tactics/technologies can be mis-used. I’ve unfortunately seen this at play for many years by various political parties and movements across the globe who just mercilessly push a message, but then fail to / choose not to come back and refine their points
Which leads me to a closing thought about feedback cycles in communications. Sometimes you’ll discover that your points aren’t working and that you need to adjust them… And in some cases, you might find that your points are landing but causing rancor / discord. It is in these cases that people should carefully process feedback they’re getting together as a team and align on the best path forward not only for their organization but for the population the messages are intended for.
So where does this leave us? Here are some bottom-line thoughts:
Embrace the communications phalanx and take the time to actually write out your 3-5 talking points for a give pursuit
While I’ve talked about this in terms of larger groups, you can also utilize it in smaller ones too. Try actually writing out the three ideas you want your organization to adopt, and then start sharing it in every/most of your conversations. You’ll be surprised what can happen after you say the same points to 3, 4, or 5 people, and how suddenly things you said are being uttered by people very far removed from you (…or your idea wasn’t that original and you’re just piling on — who knows)
Take time to capture feedback…extract it, if you must, from the people around you. Don’t assume they will talk to you; make the time to go to them and approach whatever they tell you — no matter how brutal — with curiosity and not contempt